World Class M2M Applications and Solutions Require Specialized Experts with the Experience to Support and Troubleshoot Any Problem
“The commitment KORE has demonstrated to Status Awareness Systems throughout the development stage of our safety system has been fantastic and we are more than confident with their ability to provide 100 percent global coverage. International rally and racing events are not just held in metropolitan areas; often they are run in rugged terrain and regional areas without mobile or radio signals. Communication transmission failure is just not an option with our product, so with KORE we can work between satellite, radio and mobile communication interactively to improve the safety of drivers all over the world.”
– Stephen Sims, director, Status Awareness Systems, an innovative provider of motorsport safety applications
The difference between KORE and the competition can be summed up in one word – Support.
When making an M2M network services partnering decision many factors come into play, such as network technologies supported; quality and tenure of the partner’s carrier agreements; international service capabilities; quality and features of the management platform; performance and security of the network; rate plan availability and pricing; long-term financial viability of the supplier; and more – but the single most important aspect may be one that companies may not weigh highly enough and may not even be a factor unless something goes wrong: customer and technical support.
What happens if something goes wrong?
Who is going to be helping troubleshoot the issue from the M2M network service provider side? Are they experienced? What is my experience and how responsive is the partner?
How do I know which part of the M2M value-chain is failing: the network connectivity, the device or the application?
What technologies are in place for troubleshooting?
How are escalations handled and routed?
Will a knowledgeable human being be there to help until the issue is resolved to my complete satisfaction?
M2M network service delivery is mission critical since any outage takes down their entire solution, causing widespread dissatisfaction among downstream customers. If the answers to the above questions are not answered with 100% certainty, a considerable risk has been added to the solution provider or enterprise customer’s business that might have been avoided by partnering with KORE.
Experienced, Dedicated, M2M Professionals
With KORE, customers get a dedicated team of experts who have been working to provide excellence in M2M service delivery for the better part of a decade. Unlike others who have an extremely diverse set of products and services to support – including hundreds, if not thousands, of consumer devices to support – KORE specializes and exclusively serves the M2M market. With support operations in Winnipeg, Canada and Melbourne, Australia, KORE is able to leverage a "follow the Sun" approach to customer and technical support for maximum personnel coverage and scalability. When a customer calls KORE technical support during regular hours of operations, 7 days a week, the call is answered, usually within 15 seconds. If after hours, an emergency paging system locates and dispatches the issue to the technicians on call, 24/7/365.
Transparent, Automatic Escalation Process
KORE has a streamlined escalation pathway across its four tiers of technical support, which is well documented and for which the team is held accountable. If a customer has an issue that cannot be resolved within a stated timeframe, based on priority level, it is automatically escalated to the next tier. This ensures the customer does not have to insist on the escalation – it is simply handled and routed automatically. See the table below for priority levels and escalation between the tiered teams of support.
Troubleshooting Tools Available
As part of the PRiSMPro Business Management Platform, KORE has an advanced trouble ticketing feature allowing customers to log trouble tickets and follow their progress both by logging into the system and by a consistent stream if emails about the ticket as it passes through stages until complete resolution is attained.
KORE offers technical support service tools allow the technical support team to immediately detect whether the issue stems from a problem with the network or with the device itself. With these Services, KORE support personnel can verify that the device is active and on the network, its location and the information about the last completed data session – back 30 days.
Known Outages from Carrier Partners
KORE partners with many operators around the world and, the fact is, cell towers go down. KORE receives real-time outage reports from all of our carrier partners. If a customer is having an issue in a particular geographic area versus a complete outage, KORE can determine whether the problem lies with some component of the carrier’s infrastructure and communicate the resolution status to customers as this information is received from the carrier partner in question.
Escalation to KORE Carrier Partners
Due to its size, contractual agreements, and intimate knowledge of the processes and personnel at various carrier partners, KORE is uniquely positioned to get technical issues related to the carriers’ operations and data centers diagnosed and escalated quickly. There have been times that KORE has realized and reported a carrier-centric outage before the carrier partner was even aware of it themselves, helping all downstream customers by escalating and providing diagnostic information needed to quickly address and resolve the problem.
Service Level Metrics Reported
KORE constantly measures all aspects of service delivery and customer service, then reports on network specific Key Performance Indicators and customer-specific metrics such as number of trouble tickets opened by priority level, mean-time to repair, and dozens of other service level metrics.
Annual Operations Reviews
KORE performs, at the customer’s request and at their convenience, annual operations reviews including a summary of all operations and support related metrics.
The bottom line is that KORE has been operating since 2009 with 99.999% network availability and has an unparalleled record of providing the best customer support in the industry. While support expertise and track record may not seem to be the single most important driver in making a purchase or partnering decision, it should be.
